Mai Zi nonchalantly escorted the colorfully dressed child while telling Duan Xu, “From the south, you say? They don’t manage things well down there. You’re such a newly formed evil ghost that you don’t even know the Thirty-Two Golden Wall Laws.”
As they walked through the streets, Mai Zi explained to Duan Xu. He said the Thirty-Two Golden Wall Laws were established by the previous Ghost King and the various Ghost Palace Masters, formally inscribed on a golden wall in the royal palace of Yuzhou, the capital city, hence the name. But for some unknown reason, these laws hadn’t been fully implemented at that time and were temporarily shelved.
When the current Ghost King ascended the throne, the first thing done was to vigorously enforce the Golden Wall Laws. During the suppression of rebellions, the Ghost King had killed gods and slaughtered Buddhas, turning the Ghost Realm upside down. When implementing the Golden Wall Laws, the Ghost King annihilated all ghost palaces that paid lip service but secretly defied the laws, and only then were the laws truly established.
While these laws were restrictive, they had their benefits. For nearly a hundred years, legitimate cultivators rarely hunted ghosts anymore, knowing that the evil ghosts had strict internal laws and those who committed excessive acts were promptly punished. Other evil ghosts just sought food normally, and there was no need to pressure them too much. Even orthodox Daoist sects like Xingqing Palace would send captured evil ghosts directly to Yuzhou for the Ghost King to handle. It worked well, with each side minding its own business.
“Counting the ghost palaces destroyed by His Majesty, there must be eight if not ten. His Majesty has a truly terrible temper. During the implementation of the Golden Wall Laws, it seemed like slaughtering all evil ghosts was something entirely possible.” Mai Zi sighed deeply and warned, “If His Majesty learns of your situation, the palace master you belong to will truly be in trouble, and you might even be annihilated.”
Under the black veil, Duan Xu’s eyes held a smile as he listened with interest, cradling his sword.
“How about this? Since our meeting is fated, I certainly won’t reveal your situation. Moreover, I can teach you these laws in detail. Would you let me play with that spiritual sword for a few days?” Mai Zi stood on tiptoe to pat Duan Xu’s arm, finally getting to his real purpose.
Although Mai Zi said “borrow,” once such a spiritual sword was given, it might never return. Nevertheless, Duan Xu handed the sword to Mai Zi, saying calmly, “Try it.”
Mai Zi’s eyes brightened as he reached for the sword hilt, but the moment he touched it, the hilt emitted light, and he cried out in surprise, withdrawing his hand.
“This is a spiritual sword and doesn’t recognize you as its master. Evil ghosts like you cannot touch it.”
Mai Zi wondered silently how Duan Xu could touch it then.
He sulkily examined Duan Xu and noticed the sachet on his wrist, finding this newly formed evil ghost increasingly strange. An evil ghost who couldn’t smell, yet carried a sachet?
Duan Xu followed his gaze to the sachet on his wrist and explained, “A young lady likes this fragrance. She asked me to go to a perfume shop to make her an identical sachet.”
Upon hearing this, Mai Zi understood and teased with a grin, “You’ve fallen for a living girl?”
Before Duan Xu could answer, Mai Zi adopted a world-weary expression, waving his hand. “Newly formed evil ghosts always forget they’re ghosts. Developing feelings for the living is quite normal, but it gets better with time. I advise you not to fall too deeply in love—it hurts both them and yourself.”
These words, coming from the mouth of a ten-year-old child yet sounding like the wisdom of an elder who had experienced the world, were truly bizarre. Mai Zi was a chatterbox who would latch onto any topic and run with it.
“How long can humans live? You see her now, young and beautiful, a feast for the eyes, but in the blink of an eye, she’ll become plump, with a hunched back and bent waist, white-haired and toothless. Could you still love her then, holding your nose? Even if you remain faithful, another blink and she’ll turn to ashes. A mortal’s life, to us evil ghosts, is but a fleeting moment, impossible to grasp.” Mai Zi shook his head sagely, speaking with deep meaning.
The new evil ghost beside him, with his light footsteps, seemed to pause slightly upon hearing these words. Mai Zi, thinking he had made a profound impression, grew even more enthusiastic.
“Besides, the girl you like suffers because of it. How will you meet her? By possessing various people? Is your magical power strong enough to reveal your true form? You can’t openly be with her. People will point out and gossip about her all her life. Young man, you must think this through.”
Duan Xu laughed out loud and replied without hesitation, “Thinking too clearly makes life boring.”
“Hmph, you’re already dead. Whether life is interesting or not has nothing to do with you anymore.”
Mai Zi deeply felt that this newly formed evil ghost had problematic thinking and would likely have a rocky path in the ghost realm. Out of a bit of pity, he picked out a few important laws to explain to Duan Xu.
As the two talked and walked, they turned into a secluded, empty alley. Suddenly, a female voice rang out, “Well, getting friendly with evil ghosts so quickly?”
Mai Zi looked in the direction of the voice and saw a beautiful woman standing at the end of the alley, wearing an ancient, magnificent curved-hem dress, her hair adorned with small freesias. Her gaze swept over Duan Xu and Mai Zi as she extended her hand, saying, “Where’s my sachet?”
Duan Xu walked forward and placed the sachet in her palm, saying, “Smell it and see if it’s right.”
The woman put it to her nose and sniffed carefully, smiling, “Indeed, it’s your scent.”
Mai Zi watched this scene in astonishment, wondering how, in broad daylight and not during the ghostly hours, this woman could see them. Was she human or a ghost? Perhaps a cultivator?
Not only was this newly formed evil ghost in love with a living person, but also a cultivator. So the tiger hadn’t recruited Wu Song as a servant ghost but had fallen in love with Wu Song directly! What peculiar taste. He had thought only the previous Ghost King had such extraordinary preferences.
Mai Zi watched as Duan Xu waved goodbye to him. He stiffly raised his hand to wave back, a hundred thoughts flooding his mind, ultimately crystallizing into one sentence: “Well, considering she’s such a beautiful girl, I suppose it’s understandable.”
If someday he learned that the woman he had seen today was not a cultivator but the Ghost King he feared so much, he would probably mark this day in his book and celebrate it as significantly as his birthday or death day.
Duan Xu looked through his black veil at He Simu beside him. The small freesias in her hair, clustered together, swayed gently with her steps. Wherever she walked, passersby turned to look, as if she were a walking incense burner.
She didn’t seem concerned about being overpowering.
“What you just saw was a Xu ghost, a child ghost, formed from children who died under the age of ten. Now dead for several hundred years, their minds are no longer childlike, but they still appear as children.”
He Simu walked leisurely, not knowing where to go, and Duan Xu followed beside her.
“Do children also have attachments that turn them into evil ghosts?”
“Yes, they mostly were victims of violent deaths. Did he ask you for something just now?”
“He wanted my Powang Sword.”
“That’s it. Xu ghosts had little worldly experience in life, so their desires encompass everything in this world. They want everything, lose interest instantly after obtaining it, and are forever pursuing their next desire.”
After a pause, He Simu laughed softly, “So they’re easily incited, don’t consider consequences, are shortsighted, and never learn from being used as pawns.”
Duan Xu sensed the implication in her words and asked, “So in Shuozhou Prefecture, were Xu ghosts the ones who tried to kill you?”
“The Zhi Ghost Palace has someone called Fang Chang. His lover wanted to eat Chen Ying but was caught by me and sentenced to annihilation. He harbored resentment and secretly followed me. I sensed it but couldn’t be bothered to deal with him. Who knew he was on good terms with the Xu Ghost Palace Master? When he discovered I had lost all my powers, he went to persuade the Xu Ghost Palace Master to destroy me. That brainless fellow was convinced. He hurriedly set up a clumsy trap, all the while trying to hide that it was him.”
He Simu sighed, interlocking her fingers and stretching lazily. “They’re all competing to turn to ashes and fertilize my palace garden. The Xu Ghost Palace Master’s desire to destroy me probably means he’s done something unspeakable behind my back.”
As they talked, they came to the entrance of a wealthy household. The plaque above the mansion was inscribed with a long string of Huqi text, and two imposing statues of Huqi divine beasts, Huoming Beasts, stood at the wide entrance, looking extremely grand.
From not far away, a carriage draped in golden silk arrived. A man in his mid-forties, wearing a fox fur cape, stepped down from the carriage. He was broad-shouldered and stout, dressed in a way that screamed wealth. Though his physique wasn’t impressive, he still carried the dignity and authority of nobility, walking straight toward his door without a sideways glance.
He Simu and Duan Xu passed by this house’s entrance. As they crossed paths, they heard a jingling sound coming from the Huqi nobleman. Duan Xu looked back and saw a string of bronze bells hanging at the nobleman’s waist, trembling oddly.
When he looked up again, his gaze met that of the Huqi nobleman. The nobleman’s gaze was intense, and thoughtful yet containing hidden joy, as if trying to see through the veil to his true face.
Duan Xu said, “He can see me.”
He Simu didn’t turn around, merely saying flatly, “It seems so.”
Duan Xu was silent for a moment, then suddenly lifted the black veil under his hat, nodded a greeting to the Huqi master, and then, ignoring the master’s astonished expression, lowered the veil and turned his head to meet He Simu’s gaze.
“…What are you doing?”
“Didn’t you want to attract his attention?” Duan Xu blinked, smiling. “I saw the plaque reads ‘Yilier Mansion.’ Was that man just now the famous Master Yilier of Fujian City?”
The Yilier lineage had some blood relation to the Dan Zhi royal court, though this relation wasn’t close, so they weren’t granted residence in the capital and were enfeoffed to Fujian City. Originally, such a peripheral family had little wealth, but after arriving in Fujian City, they somehow had a stroke of good fortune, buying a mountain only to discover a gold mine, with wealth subsequently pouring in. Simultaneously, Master Yilier’s eldest and youngest sons were promoted to high positions in the capital, enjoying excellent official careers.
In short, the Yilier family was now nothing short of “illustrious” in Fujian City. He had even borrowed the sacred object of the Dan Zhi Cangyanjing back to Fujian City for worship, thanks to his sons’ influence. The object was enshrined in a glazed pagoda within the Yilier mansion, kept very mysterious. Outsiders could only worship from outside the pagoda, but those who had paid homage to the sacred object all encountered good fortune afterward. Soon, the threshold of the Yilier mansion was worn down by the constant stream of distinguished visitors, making it the most sought-after household in all of Youzhou.
Duan Xu smiled, “You’re not here to worship the Huqi sacred object, are you?”
He Simu gave a slightly disdainful laugh and said, “Worship the sacred object? Why don’t I worship myself then? Since you enjoy guessing riddles, you might as well try to figure out why he has such good fortune.”
Duan Xu thought for a moment and said, “I’ve heard of raising small ghosts before. Some people, to gain good fortune and fame, would nourish evil ghosts in exchange. This Yilier… could he be nurturing the Xu Ghost Palace Master?”
He Simu raised her eyes to look at him for a moment, then stroked the back of his head and smiled, “I must collect your clever little skull someday.”
Duan Xu thought her way of expressing appreciation was unique.